Thermal behavior of a porous electric heater

The performance of a proposed porous electric heater is investigated. The porous heater exchanges heat with the working fluid through its large volumetric surface area. As a result, it produces lower surface temperature as compared with the conventional heater for the same imposed heating power. Two mathematical models are presented to describe the thermal behavior of both heaters. Axial diffusion is included in the governing equation of the solid conventional heater. The predictions of both models are compared at different operating conditions where it is found that porous heaters have much better thermal performance than the conventional heaters.